February 27, 2005

The Uruguayan Oscar

Forget Scorcese. He'll get his Oscar eventually. The big news is that Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler grabbed his Oscar for best original song ("Al Otro Lado del Río", composed for The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles' movie about young Che Guevara). It is the first time that a Spanish song receives the award. Sure, the Oscars are crap and so on, but this is a day of celebration in Uruguay and that is what it counts. There was a bit of controversy, since Drexler was invited to the Oscars but was not allowed to perform by the producers of the TV show, who thought that his face and voice were not commercial enough for one of the most broadcasted shows on Earth. Instead, they had Antonio Banderas singing and Santana performing (as if you could swap an artist by another simply because they spoke Spanish). Revenge is sweet, though. As Drexler went on stage to pick up his Oscar, he gave the most original acceptance speech of the night: he sang a bit of his song and then finished by “Thank You. Gracias”.rDouble celebration in Uruguay then, since tomorrow, March 1st, the Frente Amplio starts its presidency, too. The first left-wing coalition to reach power in two hundred years. New government, new hopes and a shinny little Oscar for a country, in Drexler words, “with the name of a river/ a forgotten eden/ a field by the sea”, located at the “South of the South”.